Business Leader

I am a badass.

Up to my 20th birthday, my badass understood and appreciated the career impact behind the scientific direction of my coursework. However, despite my intentional focus on career direction I had an early-life-crisis on my 20th birthday with the thought, “I have no idea what I want to do for the rest of my professional life!” My crisis factor increased as I convinced myself that everyone knew what they wanted to do for a career at 20 years old and I was alone in my lack of direction.

Thankfully, I was surrounded by good companions to convince me in a matter of days in the opposite line of thinking. Reality is that only some folks know concretely what they want to do professionally at 20 years old. Most like me, do not. Whew! Crisis averted, and I remained on track to graduate with 30 badass students achieving a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry.  

Little did I know, a year later, my badass was brave enough to accept an offer with a global scientific firm, take a year off school to do a co-operative (co-op), and adjust my scientific discipline trajectory from chemistry to biochemistry. A full-year co-op, or program offered by an organization whereby a college student holds their place with the university or college while they take time to gain experience and projects for the company. Living alone, 4 hours from home, and learning a related but new field of science was frightening the first week and then invigorating. I am glad my badass took the leap, and appreciated every moment of independence, experience, and exploration provided.

Returning to University life after the co-op was a surprising and amazing experience. Class work, exams, and everything else seemed to be in sharper focus and more relevant than before taking time to do “real-life work” through the co-op. I also returned to my prior undergraduate research position within the state geological survey conducting analysis of ground water samples. I went farther in my last summers of college, as well, to achieve clarity in career direction and focus through internships via the state police forensic science and pharmaceuticals to explore these as career paths. At the end of my Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, my badass decided to go for a Master’s degree in Biochemistry.  

Biochemistry married my passions for chemistry and the remarkable mechanisms of the human body. Being an athlete, I had always been interested in and trained to be in tune with my body’s hydration and fuel optimization processes as well as muscle training, performance, and recovery programs. Biochemistry offered me a career path to apply passion to career – that’s badass!

I enjoyed working in a research and development laboratory during graduate studies and in my post graduate career. However, in the first role I stepped out of the laboratory and into a dual technical and business role, I knew I was serving a desire for higher levels of thinking, complexity, and challenge. As I climbed the ladder, I acknowledged I was a self-proclaimed “challenge junkie”. Navigating tough situations was my specialty.

Rising to business leader was not in my original career plan or vision and my path was unconventional. However, once I dubbed myself a “challenge junkie” it became the natural career vision, and I knew it was where I would excel. I was confident in my satisfaction and success as a business leader because every day in the career of a business leader regardless of organization type, industry, exact title, or pay scale have the following characteristics that feed my “challenge junkie”:

1. The easy questions, tasks, and solutions are complete before going to the business leader. 

  2. The percentage of crucial conversations per total conversations for a business leader is significant and needs to be a natural skill and/or nurtured as a special skill. 

  3. The inherent drive for business leaders to continuously remain relevant, in-the-know, and at the top of your game drives life-long learning and knowledge gain.

Initially, it scared me that I did not have a clearly defined career path and vision beyond degree choice. Especially, when seemingly everyone else has clear career decisions. After I realized my perception of reality was skewed, my badass focused on the key pieces of ME that drove my satisfaction. I emphasized the skills that made me shine and began to learn new ones of interest to shine brighter and brighter over time.

Being a business leader has been challenging and rewarding in so many ways through personal interactions, strategy fulfillment, and a higher sense of helping the greater good. These are more positive ways I share and continuously develop badassery.